Zehir, the Cloaked Serpent is an evil god of poisons, assassins, and darkness. He is the creator of snakes and also of yuan-ti.[5] Most of his followers were annihilated during the Calamity, and those who survived are in self-induced stasis or hunted by the followers of Lolth, the Spider Queen and Torog, the Crawling King.[2]
Appearance[]
Fan art of Zehir, by Ofteasandherbs.[art 3]
Many depictions of him can be found in his long forgotten and abandoned temples. He takes the form of a man's body with a half-dozen arms and a gargantuan fanged serpent head, with strands of thick, dark hair sprouting from his scaled body that swirl around to form layers of shadow, obscuring his entire form.[4]
When he appeared with the rest of the pantheon in their convocation to discuss the Rites of Catatheosis, he was a spectral image of a slithering hooded, cloaked, wraith-like entity with glass-like eyes and fangs.[6]
Worship[]
Commandments of the Cloaked Serpent[]
The tenets of Zehir's religion are largely related to the sowing of chaos.[7]
Commandments of the Cloaked Serpent
Keep your acts obfuscated and secret. The night is your greatest ally.
Strike quickly and without reason. Blind the target with their own confusion.
Kill slowly. Agonizingly. Or worse, make them enjoy it.
Places of worship[]
Many temples were built to Zehir, but were lost to time when his following was largely culled.[4]
Cyrios End Forest[]
On the Menagerie Coast, a temple to Zehir was used to help seal Uk'otoa. In time it was concealed by the dense jungle.
The Mordant Isle[]
Off the coast of the Tooth of Zehir is the Mordant Isle. On the island, the ruins of Sariss, the Jade City, are home to a colony of winged serpentfolk who worship Zehir.[9]
The Vault of Shumas[]
In the Aggrad Mountains of Marquet, there was a hidden temple guarded by yuan-ti, a manticore, and an undead spirit calling herself "the Caregiver". The Caregiver watched over the sleeping children of Zehir "until our epoch begins."[10]
Urukayxl[]
On the island of Urukayxl in the Lucidian Ocean, there is a large five-sided pyramid that serves as a temple to Zehir. The pyramid and its surrounding village were largely populated by yuan-ti.[11]
Known worshipers[]
Many yuan-ti worship Zehir. In general, the serpentfolk who worship Zehir do so not out of devotion, but out of interest, and for some of them, their main ambition is to become equal or superior to their serpent deity. Only those yuan-ti of Urukayxl and Mordant Isle seem to be genuine devotees of the Cloaked Serpent.[12][9]
The named followers of Zehir are:
- "The Caregiver": an undead spirit who watched over the Vault of Shumas
- Changó: a manticore who guarded the Vault of Shumas but left under the domination of Arkhan[13][14]
- Laurin Ophidas: a half-elf cultist of Zehir who fled from the Cerberus Assembly to Ank'Harel with a stolen staff of the adder[15]
History[]
Zehir is one of the Betrayer Gods who, during the Founding, wished to join the Primordials in destroying the mortal races on Exandria. The Betrayer Gods were all banished to prison-like planes, though it's unclear to which plane Zehir was banished at that time.[16]
Before the Calamity, Zehir and the other Betrayer Gods each forged one of the Arms of the Betrayers, sentient weapons using the life force of greater fiends. Zehir's weapon was the Lash of Shadows, a whip with five serpent heads, within which is the life force of a marilith called Sizlifeth.[17]
Just before the Calamity, followers of Zehir slaughtered the people in the Vault of Shumas and locked it off.[18] Similarly, seers of a serpentfolk empire foresaw the Calamity; to survive its dangers, the empire created a magical stasis field under their capital city of Vos'sykriss (now Visa Isle) where its strongest people waited to one day emerge and rebuild their empire;[19] the ancient serpentkin worship Zehir above all others.[2]
During the Calamity, Zehir ambushed and killed many of Melora's followers near one of her shrines in the Lushgut Forest. Melora's anguished scream altered the forest, making it tortuous and thorny.[20] Most of his following was culled during the Calamity.[2]
"The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2" (Sx74)[]
Zehir spoke to the Mighty Nein through a statue in his temple in the Cyrios End Forest, and gave Fjord a boon to help hunt down the newly unsealed Uk'otoa.
"A New Age Begins" (3x121)[]
In 843 PD the Cloaked Serpent and the rest of the main pantheon attended the meeting in which Bells Hells and the Matron of Ravens proposed to use the latter's Rites of Catatheosis to turn them into mortals and avoid Predathos; the Cloaked Serpent was the first to arrive (followed closely by the Dawnfather). Eventually the gods present agreed to the plan and through the Matron's ritual, bound their souls to Exandria itself and were reborn as mortals.[21]
"Total Party Kill: Chicago Live 2025" (Sx95)[]
A few months after the end of the Era of Reclamation, Zehir hadn't returned to life yet, but his Cult of the Cloaked Serpent was active in the tunnels beneath Rexxentrum. The Mighty Nein chased them and fought the ethereal naga they had with them.
Relationships[]
Other gods[]
In addition to the antagonism with Lolth and Torog, the Cloaked Serpent loathes the Lawbearer and the Wildmother, as they stand for everything he despises: love, order, and life. His followers try to appease him by using poison and fire to undermine civilization and consume nature.[22]
Uk'otoa[]
The Cloaked Serpent is the creator of Uk'otoa, the Great Leviathan. After Zehir was banished during the Calamity, Uk'otoa was left to rule the Lucidian Ocean as his proxy.[23] However, Uk'otoa began demanding that people who entered his domain renounce their gods and worship him, which enraged Zehir. To punish Uk'otoa's insolence, in the fifth century PD it was cultists of Zehir who corrupted a series of temples dedicated to Uk'otoa and sealed the leviathan deep beneath the ocean floor.[24]
In one of these temples on Urukayxl, the Mighty Nein saw three murals depicting Uk'otoa, Desirat, and Quajath.[25] The three lesser idols have a pact: if one escapes, it will help the others,[26] so presumably Zehir is an antagonist of Desirat and Quajath as well.
Appearances and mentions[]
- Campaign Two
- "Dangerous Liaisons" (2x37), mentioned only
- "Temple of the False Serpent" (2x39), mentioned only
- Specials
- "The Mighty Nein Reunited Part 2" (Sx74), spoke through a three-headed snake statue
- "Total Party Kill: Chicago Live 2025" (Sx95), mentioned only
- Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep
- Campaign Three
- "A New Age Begins" (3x121) (first appearance)
Trivia[]
- His name means "venom" or "poison" in Turkish.
- Both he and his divine enemy, the Lawbearer, have their realms (the Towers of Night and the Bright City respectively) located in the Astral Plane, but since the Cloaked Serpent keeps his domain hidden[2] it is unlikely that both places are at war in that plane.
- He is the god with the most enemies in the pantheon, having rivals even among the Betrayer Gods, as both Lolth and Torog encourage their respective followers to go after Zehir's.[2]
- He probably inherited his control over darkness from Ethedok the Endless Shadow, a forgotten god of darkness and winter,[27] either after that deity's destruction or after the destruction of the first god of death (if he claimed darkness as part of his portfolio after Ethedok) before the Raven Queen could take it for herself.[28]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 29.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 128.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 19.
- ↑ See "Temple of the False Serpent" (2x39) at 1:18:34.
- ↑ See "A New Age Begins" (3x121) at 0:58:38.
- ↑ See "Temple of the False Serpent" (2x39) at 1:18:34.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 39.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 158.
- ↑ See "CelebriD&D with Joe Manganiello", especially at 49:58.
- ↑ See "Temple of the False Serpent" (2x39) at 10:24.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 77.
- ↑
Joe Manganiello (@joemanganiello) on Twitter: "Arkhan and Changó at The Tower of Avernus by the INCREDIBLE @Max_Dunbar #arkhan #arkhanthecruel #dungeonsanddragons #dnd #criticalrole #forcegrey #tiamat" (2018-03-09).
- ↑ See D&D: Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, 5th ed., p. 113. In the adventure, Arkhan is accompanied by the manticore Chango.
- ↑ See Call of the Netherdeep, pp. 112–113. The first mission with the Cobalt Soul in Ank'Harel involves investigating Laurin.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, pp. 11–12.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, pp. 29–31.
- ↑ See "CelebriD&D with Joe Manganiello" at 49:58.
- ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 97.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 67.
- ↑ See "A New Age Begins" (3x121).
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 30.
- ↑ See "Dangerous Liaisons" (2x37) from 1:16:07 through 1:16:35.
- ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 18.
- ↑ See "Dubious Pursuits" (2x40) from 22:40 through 29:00.
- ↑ See "Critical Role Campaign 2 Wrap Up" (Sx56) at 52:35.
- ↑ See "Axiom Shaken" (3x43) at 3:02:19.
- ↑ See "Duskmeadow" (1x57) at 0:57:56. It is known that other gods kept the Raven Queen from claiming all the functions of her predecessor.
Art:
- ↑ Symbol of Zehir from Critical Role: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting.
- ↑ Symbol of Zehir from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount by Claudio Pozas. (source)
- ↑ Fan art of Zehir, by Ofteasandherbs (source). Used with permission.
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